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Gov. Walker Says He Would Back Trump

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Gov. Scott Walker says he will support the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald Trump.

Gov. Walker and other state Republicans had plenty to say Wednesday about Donald Trump being their party’s likely nominee for President. Both Ted Cruz and John Kasich have suspended their campaigns, leaving Trump as the only remaining candidate in the GOP race. Yet, division exists among state Republicans, in the direction they seem headed.

After meeting with manufacturing reps in West Allis, Gov. Walker reiterated his stance that he will support the Republican nominee for President.

“Last August, I stood on the stage in Cleveland and said I would support the nominee. I’ve said it repeatedly since then. I’ll be supporting the Republican nominee once that’s officially set at the convention against Hillary Clinton,” Walker says.

Walker endorsed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the days leading up to Wisconsin’s presidential primary in April. Cruz won and Walker became one of his delegates for the GOP National Convention in July. Walker says Cruz will now have to decide whether to release his Wisconsin delegates from their obligation to vote for him on the first ballot. Walker acknowledges he hasn’t always been a supporter of Trump.

“My focus has been on who I thought was the best candidate. Certainly for a while, I was hoping it would be me. But, before the Wisconsin primary I focused on why I was for Ted Cruz, what I thought he brought to the table and not necessarily who I was against,” Walker says.

Walker predicts Trump will spend a fair amount of time in Wisconsin in the months leading up to the general election in November. He insists Trump would make a better president than Democrat Hillary Clinton.

“If you look at taxes, regulation, the size and scope of the federal government. All of those things I think would be much better under Trump,” Walker says.

“Donald Trump is absolutely toxic when it comes to the electorate,” WTMJ’s Charlie Sykes says.

While some state politicians say they’ll galvanize behind Trump, a couple of conservative talk radio hosts remain firmly against him. Charlie Sykes helped lead the effort to elect Cruz in Wisconsin’s primary. He says he will not encourage his audience to back Trump in November.

“There are going to be conservatives like me who will remind people that Never Trump means Never Trump,” Sykes says.

Sykes and other Trump opponents say they fear a Trump candidacy could hurt other Republicans on the ballot this fall, if party members stay home or vote for Clinton. Another mouthpiece of conservative interests - Green Bay talk radio host Jerry Bader says he’s upset that Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus has called for the party to unite around Trump.

“For Reince Priebus to say all right kids get in line now, I know you don’t like him but it is what it is and you just have to get on board,” Bader says.

While the media hosts who encouraged Republicans to vote for Cruz in Wisconsin’s primary are not circling the wagons around Trump, it seems a growing nucleus of state politicians are willing to get aboard.

In addition to Walker agreeing to support the nominee, Sen. Ron Johnson is expected to endorse Trump. Johnson is locked in a tight race with former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold.

And state Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald spoke in Madison on Wednesday, putting it this way, “We’re on the Trump train now.”

Marti was a reporter with WUWM from 1999 to 2021.
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